


Four Minutes To A Lifetime

by gaialux



Category: Dungeons and Dragons (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-28
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-08-18 06:31:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8152400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaialux/pseuds/gaialux
Summary: Four minutes. That's all it took to go from one world to another and back again.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Serenade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenade/gifts).



Four minutes.  
  
That's all it took to go from one world to another and back again. Four minutes to defeat evil and survive as a group of kids having no idea what's going on.  
  
Four minutes.  
  
Hank couldn't believe it.  
  
"What...?" Sheila's voice is soft and afraid by Hank's ear. He squeezes her hand.  
  
"We're home," Hank says. Quiet, then, "We're home."  
  
*  
  
Only four minutes may have passed, but home felt like four decades of difference.  
  
Rules. So many of them.  
  
"Light out, Hank," his mother said for the second time. Stern, now. And Hank wanted to say that he'd been living from sun up to sun down for so, so long. Except - to her - it wasn't. And his words fell on deaf ears.  
  
"Okay," he says instead and doesn't turn the light back on as his mother steps from the room.  
  
It's strange not to feel breathing right beside him as he sleeps.  
  
*  
  
On night three, Diana sneaks into his room. Gymnastics training may have made her strong for the Realm, but time _in_  the Realm made her nimble enough to climb a second story window without a sound.  
  
"Hank," she whispers.  
  
His eyes fly open and he reaches for his bow. His hand hits a desk chair instead.  
  
"Diana?" Her eyes shine in the light of a street light. Nowhere near as beautiful as moonlight.  
  
"I...I'm sorry. I just can't sleep. I keep waking up and thinking..."  
  
"I know," Hank says. He pats his bed. "You can stay. Just...quiet. My parents."  
  
For the first time in a long, long time Hank is back to following menial rules he once would have been in charge of making.  
  
"Of course," Diana says. She sits on the bed, legs curled up under her body.  
  
She looks nervous, Hank decides. Even more than she ever did in the Realm. Who would have thought the real world could ever be scarier?  
  
"It'll be okay," Hank says. So, so quiet. Like when Bobby came to him for reassurance but didn't want Eric to hear.  
  
"I know," Diana says. "Trust me - I know. I'm just waiting for the moment that happens."  
  
Four minutes in the Realm. That's all it took.  
  
~fin.


End file.
